Segments

This week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, host Rev. Welton Gaddy gets an update on the latest innovations and most exciting changes in interfaith practice and politics. We’ll hear from Robby Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute to get a window into the religious and political dynamics of this years election. Dr. David Gushee and Brad Clark of Project One America fill us in on breaking developments in the relationship between religious communities and LGBT equality. Finally the Rev. Gina Campbell will share her experience at the Washington National Cathedral’s first ever Friday Muslim prayers held this past week.

The Voters and Their Values We can’t start a conversation about religion and politics without some good data about how America’s religious communities view social and political issues and the electoral process. That’s why Welton kicks off this week’s show by checking in with Dr. Robert P. Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, about his recently released “2014 Post-Election Values Survey.” Welton will ask Robby about how religious Americans voted this season, the issues they cared most deeply about, and what results Robby found most surprising.

Dr. David Gushee and Changing our Mind Next Welton is honored to invite on to the show the prominent Evangelical scholar, educator and author, Dr. David Gusheee, who has recently called on Evangelical Christians like himself to embrace the full inclusion of LGBT persons in American religious life. Dr. Gushee will walk through his latest thinking that led him to come to the positions he outlines in his new book Changing Our Mind: A call from America’s leading evangelical ethics scholar for full acceptance of LGBT Christians in the Church. Finally Welton and Dr. Gushee will discuss his previous work on stopping torture and how these two issues are related.

Project One America: Bringing LGBT Equality Below the Mason-Dixon Line It seems that almost every day we are hearing about another victory in the long struggle to enshrine equal rights for the LGBT community into American laws. However, these advances aren’t coming to every part of the nation at the same speed. While marriage equality is now safeguarded throughout the northeast and across the western United States, LGBT Americans remain particularly vulnerable in the South. This week we’ll hear from Brad Clark, director of Project One America about his and the Human Rights Campaign’s work to secure LGBT rights in the South.

Muslim Friday Prayers at the National Cathedral The Washington National Cathedral has always leant its space and its name to be events that represent the full diversity of American religious life. This past week they took a new step, inviting the local Muslim community to hold their Friday afternoon prayers in the Cathedral. On today’s show Welton is joined by Rev. Gina Campbell, the Cathedral’s director of liturgy to hear about how this service came together and how it went last week.